Zlib-ng 2.1.4 was released this week as the newest version of this Zlib data compression library intended for "next generation" uses. Zlib-ng continues having a lower barrier for new contributions and optimizations than the upstream Zlib repository itself to allow for it to more rapidly evolve on today's systems.

The Zlib-ng 2.1.4 release brings an initial LoongArch port for that Chinese CPU architecture based on MIPS64 and inspired by RISC-V. Zlib-ng 2.1.4 also has MinGW build fixes, cleaned up x86 SSE4.2 support, CMake build system fixes, and other updates.

This new Zlib-ng 2.1.4 release also has some new RISC-V optimizations around speeding up Adler32 using the RISC-V Vector (RVV) instructions, optimized chunkset handling, and allowing for RVV detection to happen via HWCAPs at run-time. On the ARM side there is some minor improvements too.

Downloads and more details on the Zlib-ng 2.1.4 release via GitHub .